Actor

(b. July 17, 1972 Maple Ridge, British Columbia)

Talented, intelligent and articulate, the luminous Molly Parker has consistently received critical acclaim for her acting abilities and her bold, diverse choice of characters. Raised by progressive parents on a “hippie farm” in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Parker studied ballet at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and danced from age three to seventeen. An actor uncle helped her get started in acting at the age of fifteen and by sixteen she was landing roles in movies of the week and U.S. TV shows shot in Vancouver. After high school, she spent three years studying under Mel Tuck at Vancouver’s Gastown Actors Studio, took voice and singing lessons on the side and landed occasional roles in TV series such as “Neon Rider,” “The Outer Limits” and “Highlander.”

Her big break came with Lynne Stopkewich’s directorial debut Kissed (1996), which was filmed as Stopkewich’s master’s thesis at the University of British Columbia. Based on a Barbara Gowdy short story about a young necrophiliac who begins working in a funeral home, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival® and was a breakout hit. Within days of the film’s first screening, Parker was fielding offers from Hollywood agents and eventually signed with the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles. She subsequently appeared on the cover of “Variety” and won a Genie Award for Best Leading Actress.

Her performance in Kissed also attracted the attention of Jodie Foster, who, as executive producer, cast Parker in Waking the Dead (2000), co-starring Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly. She landed a recurring role on Don McKellar’s quirky CBC sitcom “Twitch City” (1998) and showed her range with supporting performances as a pregnant English housewife in Michael Winterbottom’s Wonderland (1999), a grief-stricken mother in Jeremy Podeswa’s The Five Senses (1999) and a Hungarian war bride in István Szabó’s Sunshine (1999). She reunited with Stopkewich for the less than auspicious Suspicious River (2000), starred as a high-priced call girl in Wayne Wang’s provocative The Center of the World (2001) – which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead – and won a Best Supporting Actress Genie for her performance as an upstart architect enduring a rocky relationship in Bruce Sweeney’s Last Wedding (2001).

Her marquee roles in Sturla Gunnarsson’s Rare Birds (2001), Wiebke von Carolsfeld’s Marion Bridge (2002) and Paul Gross’s Men with Brooms (2002) established her as one of Canadian cinema’s most prominent actresses. She continued to turn in solid supporting work in such ambitious features as the Adolf Hitler biopic Max (2002), co-starring John Cusack, and in television series such as HBO’s acclaimed “Six Feet Under.” She played a young suffragette opposite Hilary Swank and Angelica Huston in Iron Jawed Angels (2004), then landed the starring role in the HBO series “Deadwood.” She also tried her hand at producing with her husband Matt Bissonette’s debut feature Looking for Leonard (1999). She currently lives with Bissonette in Los Angeles.

Film and video work includes

My Son Johnny, 1991 (actor; TV)
Neon Rider series, 1991 (actor; TV, one episode)
Anything for Love, a.k.a. Just One of the Girls, 1992 (actor)
Hate Mail, 1992 (actor)
Neon Rider series, 1992 (actor; TV, one episode)
Nightmare Café series, 1992 (actor; TV, one episode)
Madison series, 1993 (actor; TV, one episode)
The Substitute, 1993 (actor; TV)
Neon Rider series, 1994 (actor; TV, one episode)
One More Mountain, 1994 (actor; TV)
Paris or Somewhere, 1994 (actor; TV)
Deceived by Trust: A Moment of Truth Movie, a.k.a. Deceived by Trust, 1995 (actor; TV)
Ebbie, 1995 (actor; TV)
Falling From the Sky: Flight 174, a.k.a. Freefall: Flight 174, 1995 (actor; TV)
Highlander series, 1995 (actor; TV, one episode)
Last of the Dogmen, 1995 (actor)
Little Criminals, 1995 (actor)
The Marshal series, 1995 (actor; TV, one episode)
The Outer Limits series, 1995 (actor; TV, one episode)
The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky, a.k.a. Hole in the Sky, 1995 (actor; TV)
Serving in Silence: the Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, a.k.a. Serving in Silence, 1995 (actor; TV)
Wings of Courage, 1995 (actor)
The Chain, 1996 (actor; associate producer)
Good Things Too, 1996 (actor)
Lonesome Dove series, 1996 (actor; TV, two episodes)
Poltergeist: The Legacy series, 1996 (actor; TV, one episode)
The Sentinel series, 1996 (actor; TV, one episode)
Titanic series, 1996 (actor; TV)
Bliss, 1997 (actor)
Contagious, a.k.a. Virus 1997 (actor; TV)
Intensity, a.k.a. Dean Koontz's Intensity, 1997 (actor; TV)
From Morning On I Waited Yesterday, 1998 (actor)
Twitch City series, 1998 (actor; TV)
Under Heaven, a.k.a. In a Private Garden; In the Shadows, 1998 (actor)
The Intruder, 1999 (actor)
Ladies Room, 1999 (actor)
Looking for Leonard, 1999 (actor; executive producer)
Suspicious River, 2000 (actor)
Waking the Dead, 2000 (actor)
The Center of the World, 2001 (actor)
Rare Birds, 2001 (actor)
The War Bride, 2001 (actor)
Max, 2002 (actor)
Pure, 2002 (actor)
Six Feet Under series, 2002 (actor; TV, two episodes)
Undying Love, 2002 (narrator)
Break a Leg, 2003 (actor)
Deadwood series, 2004 (actor; TV)
The Good Shepherd, 2004 (actor)
Iron Jawed Angels, 2004 (actor; TV)
Nine Lives, 2005 (actor)